Revising Characters

First Side of Romance Triangle

Writing the MC vs His Girl Friend

Did you study for your quiz question? Oh no…too late now. Here comes the question.

When writing a romance triangle, where do we start?

Draw a blank? Me, to. Then lightning struck. Duh. Why not start at the beginning…with the MC and his girlfriend? After all, if beginning works for everything else, shouldn’t that hold with our perfect couple.

At the moment, I have forty scenes…with the girl friend appearing in ten scenes, three without competition, and seven alongside her rival. By contrast, the other woman appears fourteen times without the girl friend. And…that should foreshadow the lay of the land.

But my single biggest problem wasn’t getting him to question their relationship …but discovering our couple’s initial attraction. In order to answer that question, I needed to consider two aspects of a perfect ending. Does the character get what they need? And, do they get what they wanted?

And, once I explicitly stated her driving motivations, revising her paragraphs proved simple.

Along the way, a fascinating thing happened. I started, intending to revise both characters, but virtually every change occurred in her paragraphs. Maybe that’s because she never plays the POV character, With no access to physical sensations, emotions, or thoughts, I braided her words and actions together to create the mosaic. Readers should marvel at his ability, or timidness to put up with her. Moreover, with no marriage commitments, or equally weighty promises, readers should root for his freedom. And that’s how I want to portray her. Completion of the other woman’s dynamics should provide prove or disprove the pattern.

But, lest you get the wrong impression…this is a fantasy with a romance subplot, rather than a romance with a fantasy subplot. And, since I hope to produce eight stories to complete the series, will-they-or-won’t-they must extend over 700,000 words.

I revised ten scenes, adding another 900 words, and approaching 98,000 total words.